It is conventional to utilize a plastic bag for the collection of refuse, the bag being sufficiently pliable to enable its normally open end to be closed and maintained in closed position following filling of the bag to a desired level. One of the difficulties in using such a trash bag is that the bag has insufficient strength to be maintained in an upright position without external support. It has been proposed heretofore, therefore, to provide an upright frame having a loop at its upper end to which can be secured the open end of the trash bag to maintain the latter in an upright position. Such a frame, however, is not intended to enable a person to move the frame and bag along a littered path to enable refuse to be collected in the bag. Instead, it has been the practice for a person to carry a trash bag and try to keep the mouth open as the littered path is traversed. Attempting to maintain the mouth of a conventional plastic trash bag open is difficult enough in an indoors environment, and is practically impossible outdoors when the bag is subjected to a breeze or wind.
Conventionally a person seeking to fill an open trash bag must bend over or stoop, pick up the litter, and thrust it into the open end of the trash bag. Alternatively, some litter collectors use a pointed rod to impale a piece of litter without the user's having to bend over or stoop. However, removal of the piece of litter from the rod usually necessitates stripping the litter from the rod manually, thereby requiring the use of both hands and compounding the problem of maintaining the trash bag open. In either event, manual handling of the litter is an unpleasant and sometimes hazardous task which preferably is avoided.
When a trash bag is filled with litter, it is necessary in conventional constructions to lift the filled bag from the frame so as to enable another, empty bag to be fitted to the frame. In many instances the bag cannot be secured in closed position until it has been separated from the frame and in other instances the filled bag and its contents are quite heavy. In those instances in which the bag must be removed from the frame before the bag can be closed, the handling of a heavy bag often results in rupturing of the bag or otherwise spilling its contents. In any event, the necessity of having to lift a heavy bag in many instances is unduly burdensome.
An object of the invention is to provide a refuse collector which overcomes or greatly minimizes all of the foregoing disadvantages of apparatus used heretofore.